Monday, 24 December 2012

I tasted this cake at the time when I was working at the French Patisserie and I fall in love with it. Now when I was looking for something to bake for Christmas I accidentally came across this blog with the recipe! As I was reading I realized that the blog author has experienced the same: first watched it being made on the TV and then later found the recipe in the magazine. I sure agree with Bree that this cake is magical not only because of the taste, but also because of the baking process. You see... the cake base floats up and exchanges with the flan without any mixing! Try it for yourself... it might be too late for Christmas, but there is always time for your New Year's party ;)

CHOCOLATE FLAN CAKE

For the cake:

120g caramel/toffee sauce

75g cup flour

40g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

110g bittersweet chocolate, chopped

85g butter, melted

120ml buttermilk

110g sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

For the flan:

2 (395g) cans sweetened condensed milk

600 ml whole milk

175g cream cheese

6 eggs

4 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat
the oven to 180°C. Spray a Bundt cake tin with baking spray. Pour caramel/toffee sauce into the bottom of cake pan.

In
a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Place chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl, heat until melted, 2
minutes at 50% power. Whisk buttermilk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla into
chocolate until incorporated. Add flour mixture and stir until combined.
Pour batter over caramel.

Add
sweetened condensed milk. milk, cream cheese, eggs, egg yolk, and
vanilla to a blender, Blend for one minute, or until very smooth. Slowly
pour over cake batter.

Place
the cake pan in a large roasting pan. Pour boiling water halfway up the
sides of the pan and bake for 75 to 90 minutes, or when a toothpick
comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature,
about 2 hours. Transfer to refrigerator and chill for at least 8 hours.

To
unmold, place the bottom of the cake pan in hot water for 1 minute.
Place a cake plate over the cake pan and flip over. Slowly remove pan
and serve.

I am finally almost there! My presents are almost packed, a lot of my knitting projects are over, my baking is coming to the end and the most importantly I am here in Lithuania watching the snow falling down :) (sorry I needed to brag).

Anyway... as I am waiting for Christmas Eve to come I remembered about last years' Christmass and the lovely gift that I received from Liz. That was a little folder with all the American recipes including the gingerbread cookies recipe of course. I baked so many this year!

Whisk
together first 6 ingredients and set aside. In a separate bowl cream
butter and sugar with a mixer. Add egg and molasses (or more brown
sugar); beat on medium until mixture is smooth. Add the flour/spice
mixture slowly, blend on low until just combined. Wrap in plastic and
chill for an hour. Preheat oven to 165C. Roll out and cut
cookies. Place 1/2 an inch apart on an ungreased pan. Bake for 9-11
minutes (be careful not to brown them as that means they are burning).
Wait until they are cool and decorate with frosting if desired

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

I love Christmas! Everything about it! I especially love baking and decorating. Have you done your Christmas decorating yet? I am sure you did! I have seen so many of my friends on Facebook putting all these wonderful pics of their homes which kind of put me under pressure. Because me as always never on time with this. And this is not because I have lack of inspiration, this is because I always run out of time. So here we go, I finally unloaded what was in my head already all made (including baking) and ready to go....

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About Me

I will start with saying that I was never born as a perfect cook. I only
got in love with baking and food later in life when I moved to London
and had no other option as learning to satisfy my all time hunger for
cakes. Yes, it is bad habit to eat sweet, especially just after the
dinner but every time I can't resist the feeling that somehow the dinner
is just not completed without the dessert!
My learning took bit by bit from watching my friends cook and eventually
from following the recipes. My first time experience on baking was when
I was 9 years old. I baked a cake to impress my mum for her birthday. I
don’t know what went wrong, but it came out really flat, thin and
unbaked inside. I will always remember the expression on my mum's face:
she was trying to eat it with the smile on her face. So... if after this
I can bake I believe everybody have a potential to do it too. The most
important ingredient for it is love for food!
Anyway, I am coming to the end. My main dream is to open a community cafe So
keep following my blog if you interested to see my journey towards this goal.
Thank you so much for your support :-)